Sports

Sports

From The Gridiron To The Galaxy At Large: An Astronaut's Unexpected Journey

10:11pm July 05, 2015

When NFL hopeful Leland Melvin suffered a hamstring injury, it opened the door to an unusual backup career: NASA astronaut. (This piece originally aired Feb. 7, 2015 on Weekend All Things Considered.)

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Japan fans are wildly outnumbered by red, white and blue ahead of the game on Sunday, but these three are decked out and ready to go. From left, Asuka Tsujimoto Keiko Tsujii and Yuri Nakayama came to Vancouver to cheer their country on.

U.S. Women Head Into World Cup Final With Dominant Defense

5:22pm July 05, 2015

by Russell Lewis

The U.S. hasn't given up a goal since its opener against Australia — a stunning scoreless streak of 513 minutes. Now the team meets Japan for a hotly anticipated rematch of the last World Cup final.

Sports

The Week In Sports: The World Cup Conclusion

8:34am July 05, 2015

England took bronze Saturday in the Women's World Cup. NPR's Lynn Neary talks to Mike Pesca of Slate's The Gist podcast about Sunday's final game to decide who will win gold.

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Sunday's World Cup Is U.S. Women's Chance For Payback

8:34am July 05, 2015

by Shereen Marisol Meraji

The Women's World Cup final is tonight in Vancouver, Canada. It's a rematch of the United States and Japan — the finalists from the last tournament in 2011. Japan won that game on a penalty kick.

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Metamorphosis On The Pitch: Americans Make Changes To Inch Closer To World Cup

6:42pm July 04, 2015

The U.S. women's national soccer team hasn't won the World Cup since 1999, but now they've won six games back to back. New York Times reporter Jere Longman explains the ways the team has changed.

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Williams Survives, Nadal Falls At Wimbledon

11:04am July 04, 2015

The world's tennis greats are facing off at Wimbledon. Howard Bryant of ESPN is there and tells NPR's Eric Westervelt what's been happening on the grass courts.

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Portland, Ore., Soccer Fans Gear Up For Women's World Cup Final

6:31pm July 03, 2015

by Tom Goldman

It's the U.S. and Japan in Sunday's Women's World Cup final in Vancouver, Canada — a rematch of the 2011 championship. Soccer-crazed fans in Portland, Ore., who watched Japan's fortuitous win over England this week, provide plenty of insight about what it will take for the U.S. team to avenge it's loss four years ago.

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Royals All Star Voting Echoes Last Time MLB Fans Stuffed The Ballot Box

6:35pm July 02, 2015

Eight Royals could start in the All Star game July 14. NPR's Robert Siegel talks to Chris Eckes, curator of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, about the last time this happened.

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Skydiving and vacuuming burn the same number of calories. So what'll it be, thrills or a clean carpet?

Sweeping Or Skydiving? When Counting Calories It's All The Same

6:29pm July 02, 2015

by Alyson Hurt

Sports can burn a lot of energy. But vacuuming the carpet burns calories, too. The question is, how much? We checked out the numbers and found surprises.

U.S. Seeks Extradition Of 7 FIFA Officials From Switzerland

3:10pm July 02, 2015

by Krishnadev Calamur

Swiss prosecutors said the requests were delivered Wednesday evening. The FIFA officials were arrested in May in Zurich in a corruption investigation of soccer's governing body.